Copending U.S. application Ser. No. 149,545, filed May 13, 1980, describes the production of a binding for fiber bundles. This copending application describes a binding of fiber bundles which is produced by the effect of deformation members and in which fibers, originating from at least one of the fiber bundles to be bound, loop around the binding point in a force-locking manner. Very effective bindings of the type specified may be produced very rapidly by the method and apparatus described in that copending application. However, depending on the character of the fiber bundles to be bound, cases may arise in which a degree of untwisting, i.e. a loosening, results in a fiber bundle on one side of the binding due to the additional twist impressed on the fiber bundles during the formation of the binding on the other side of the binding.
Such untwisting occurs on one or on the other side of the completed binding, which is to be formed whether Z-twist or S-twist fiber bundles are involved. The natural elasticity of fiber bundles, together with an uneven gripping of the bundles to be bound as proposed according to the above-mentioned copending application is adequate for many fiber bundles for avoiding a disadvantageous influence by the additional twist mentioned. In these cases, a balance in the twist is produced from a neighboring zone of the untwisted fiber bundles.
This does not always happen to a sufficient extent with other fiber bundles, in particular, those which are relatively flexible or are loosely twisted. The result of this is that the binding produced does have an adequate strength, but the tensile strength in the untwisted region mentioned, i.e. next to one end of the binding, is undesirably reduced.